After losing to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night, the New York Rangers were an entirely different hockey club on Saturday night in their 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild.

It was a 60-minute effort that saw timely goal scoring, solid defensive play and a good game from back-up netminder Martin Biron (25 saves). None of these things were present in Colorado on Friday night.

Many fans were probably surprised that Rangers’ head coach John Tortorella went with Biron in goal, especially since Henrik Lundqvist only played a little more than half the game in Colorado on Friday night. However, Tortorella made the right decision in starting the back-up netminder and Biron responded by picking up his fourth victory of the season (4-2-0, 2.33 goals against average, .907 save percentage).

For Marian Gaborik and Derek Boogaard, last night marked the return to their former hockey club. Both played extremely well as Gaborik picked up an assist and Boogaard played a big part in the team’s first goal of the night.

The Blueshirts return to Madison Square Garden tomorrow night to take on the Calgary Flames (8-10-0). The Flames are struggling and currently find themselves four points out of last place in the Western Conference.

Hopefully, the Rangers won’t fall into the trap and will do everything they can to put in a 60-minute effort, much like they did in last night’s victory over the Wild.

About Goal Line Report

Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla's Korner, you can also find Patrick's work over at Sportsnet.ca, The Red Light District Hockey Blog, NHL Home Ice, and Liam Maguire's Ultimate Hockey web site.

Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick's musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, TheFourthPeriod.com, Spector's Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.